Team Focus: Emery Can Afford to be More Adventurous in Sevilla Midfield Selection

Sevilla's impressive start to the season saw them go to San Mames on Sunday afternoon with a chance to go top of La Liga. It wasn’t to be, however, and instead a cautious looking team slipped to a 1-0 defeat, deservedly beaten by hosts Athletic Bilbao. This meant Unai Emery's side ended the weekend in fifth place, at the bottom of the pack currently so close together at the top of the Primera Division.

Still, 22 points from 10 games remains an excellent start to the season, especially as Emery has been working with a much-changed squad this season, and is dealing with regular Europa League games midweek.

Sevilla’s continuing financial issues meant the club sold last season’s stars Ivan Rakitic, Federico Fazio and Alberto Moreno last summer. 12 players were brought in by canny sporting director Monchi, with the club making a profit of €28.3 million on its dealings.

The most expensive arrival was midfielder Grzegorz Krychowiak, signed for €5.5 million from Ligue 1 side Reims. Krychowiak was not widely known in Spain before arriving, but has been the quickest to settle. The Poland international is currently just about nudging out top scorer Carlos Bacca to be the rojiblancos’ best player so far this season. In his first nine La Liga starts he has earned three man of the match awards, and currently has an impressive Whoscored.com rating of 7.5 [14th of all La Liga players].

The all-action midfielder's most impressive statistics are his 3.8 tackles per game [6th in La Liga], 4.2 aerial challenges won [10th] and 3.2 interceptions [17th]. His 2.6 fouls per game also keeps him high up [7th] in that ranking. In each of these four defensive metrics 'Krycho' is the leading Sevilla player.

Going the other way however the 24-year-old's numbers are not so impressive – he has zero goals and zero assists in La Liga, 0.2 key passes per game, a passing percentage of just 79.8%. This is despite clearly having a more than decent touch on the ball, and usually being fielded as the nominally more creative member of Sevilla’s midfield double-pivot, with the even bigger and more destructive Stephane Mbia or Vicente Iborra alongside him.

Such an approach has been working well in La Liga for Sevilla against smaller teams [in both senses of the word]. Emery’s team are set up to be strong through the middle, hard to beat, and then look to score through set-pieces. Three new playmakers arrived in the summer - Ever Banega, Denis Suarez and Gerard Deulofeu, but the Basque coach does not yet seem ready to play a patient brand of football.

So while Sevilla have been getting results, their style has has not necessarily been so easy on the eye. The rojiblancos have so far hit 68 long balls per game, compared to 358 short passes. They average just 50.9% possession so far [ninth in La Liga] and have a 76.7% pass success rate [8th of the 20 sides]. Of their 17 goals in 10 games, seven have come from dead balls [penalties and set-pieces combined].

Against Athletic on Sunday, Emery’s side met a team who were willing and able to out-battle them. Within 60 seconds, home centre-forward Aritz Aduriz was booked for charging into the back of Krychowiak, and an early marker was laid down. An even more telling moment was Athletic’s diminutive attacker Iker Muniain leaving the giant Mbia sprawled on the ground appealing for a free-kick, after the bigger man had been beaten in the air despite having an advantage of 20 cms and 21 kilos.

There were 35 fouls in total during the 90 minutes [20 from Athletic], and just three shots on target. One of these was a fierce volleyed goal from Aduriz on just 12 minutes, a just reward for the home side’s fast and determined start. This was then enough to win the game. 

Krychowiak was again one of Sevilla’s best players - a 7.49 overall rating, with 6 aerials won, 7 tackles made. But his passing stats again left something to be desired, with just 76.7% finding a teammate. Athletic sat back after scoring and Sevilla had 57.6% possession, but did very little with it.

Emery’s team really only looked like getting an equaliser when Éver Banega replaced Mbia at half-time and joined ‘Krycho’ in deep midfield. That got the team ticking, and the Argentine made two key passes, completed 85.1% of his passes and had 52 touches of the ball in his 45 minutes. By contrast Mbia had just 26 touches during an equal amount of time on the pitch, and has averaged just 36.9 passes during his seven appearances in La Liga so far this term.

Sevilla’s improved second half showing was not enough to force an equaliser, but did suggest that this midfield pairing should get more of a chance. Krychowiak’s physical and tactical strengths should marry well with Banega’s more technical and creative qualities. The Argentine can be a frustrating player to watch [and surely to coach, as Emery knows from their time together at Valencia], but his team have won the only two La Liga games he's started this season.

It made sense to be cautious with team selection early on, especially given the upheaval during the summer, and on balance results have been pretty good so far. But to really push on and battle at the top over the full season, Sevilla need more than just muscle in midfield.

Do you think Éver Banega should be starting for Sevilla? Let us know in the comments below